


Sunlight, Spas, and Silk

by LeaperSonata



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Leliana/Female Tabris (implied), Pampering, Shopping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 10:38:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6235342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeaperSonata/pseuds/LeaperSonata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kallian Tabris has had a rough few years, and on seeing the state of her, Leliana immediately dragged her to Val Royeaux for pampering. She brought Josephine along for good measure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunlight, Spas, and Silk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MapleSheep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MapleSheep/gifts).



> It felt too awkward and formal just calling her Tabris, so I used the default name for a female Tabris - I hope that's okay!
> 
> A thousand thanks to Jared (Tchy on AO3), who beta read this for me at the last minute on no notice.
> 
> Prompt: The hero of Ferelden comes back from looking for the cure and, put simply, looks like utter shit. Leliana can't stand this and decides to take a day or two off to take care of their friend/lover, mostly by indulging in a nice girls day out, dragging Josephine along. Anything involving shopping, doing their hair, or having fancy pastries etc works for me. Just girls unwinding and having fun. Having them all be mere friends works for me, though I'm totally fine with a Leliana/Tabris romance. (Bonus points if Tabris is a rogue who seems a bit bewildered/disgruntled with all the luxury involved.)

"Leliana," Kallian said wearily, "is it really necessary that we be packed in lettuce like some sort of exotic meat?"

"It's a skin treatment!" Leliana insisted. "It's very soothing."

"It does feel quite nice," Josephine said.

" _Lettuce_ ," said Kallian in tones of deepest disgust.

"It isn't lettuce. It's baby elfroot, dipped in an embrium tisane," Leliana said as snootily as possible, then spoiled the impression by giggling. Josephine laughed with her. Kallian attempted to glare at Leliana, but couldn't keep her lips from twitching.

Leliana crowed triumphantly. "Aha! A smile." Her own smile turned tender. "You need more of those, ma chère."

Kallian rubbed a hand over her face self-consciously. "You know you can always make me smile, Leli."

"Ma petite choute, when you arrived at Skyhold you looked like you hadn't smiled in years. Permit me my small victories."

Kallian sighed. "I can understand the fancy baths and things. I appreciate those, I hadn't had a proper bath in ages. But the leaves? And the tiny cheese wheels on the eyes?"

"I admit, I am not entirely sure what the tiny cheese wheels do," admitted Josephine, "But they do add to the experience. You cannot open your eyes with them on, after all."

"That's exactly my problem with them. Anyone could sneak up on me!"

"Kallian, dear, we are in a private inner chamber booked for the day in the most exclusive spa in the city that isn't in the Winter Palace itself," Leliana pointed out patiently. "No one is going to sneak up on you except possibly a servant carrying grapes. There are three layers of discreet guards between us and every entrance, and every employee is heavily vetted."

"Why on earth does a spa need that much security? Did you put them up to it?" Kallian asked suspiciously.

"Of course not!" Leliana protested.

"She didn't need to," Josephine put in. "We are in Val Royeaux, in the heart of the game. No one wants to risk an assassination attempt during their facial treatments. The best spas pride themselves on their security."

Kallian sighed. "I will never understand Orlais. Give me a Ferelden slum any day of the week."

"Ah, but do Ferelden slums have gold and mother of pearl bathtubs?"

"No one needs a mother-of-pearl bathtub! I don't even know what mother-of-pearl is," said Kallian.

"It comes from the shells of oysters. The ones that form pearls," Leliana said. "Thus the name."

"Who is growing oysters the size and shape of bathtubs?" Kallian demanded.

"It is a composite from many oysters," Josephine put in. "They work specially to make sure they produce flat sheets of shell that are more easily combined, and I believe the formulas that allow them to shape them into a single piece are a trade secret, passed down over generations." She coughed delicately. "That is what they say, at any rate."

"Now is not the time to think about merchants," Leliana chided gently. "We are at the spa, and it is time to relax."

Kallian sighed. "It _is_ nice to feel clean again."

"By the time we're done here, they'll have you feeling ten years younger," Leliana said.

 

*

 

Leliana ran her hands through a casket of pearls, but her attention was on the worn elf beside her. When Kallian's gaze paused significantly on a bolt of figured rose-pink silk and flicked towards her for a moment, Leliana took her cue and began her part in the performance that was bargaining in Val Royeaux.

"The damasks are fine this year," she commented casually to Josephine.

"Ah, but the brocades are so dreary this season," Josephine replied, eyes sparkling. "I do think I saw nicer ones in Montsimmard, but of course the fashions in the capital are... capricious." She laughed. "Remember when all the fashion was olive green with lavender?"

Leliana laughed as well, and Kallian joined in. "That must have looked awful!"

"I must admit, " Leliana said, "I was glad that I could cleave to a uniform as an excuse to avoid fashion for a little while, as it did not suit my coloring at all."

"I had no such excuse," Josephine sighed. "And of course I could not be seen in out of season fashions. I was very glad when periwinkle became the order of the day instead."

The merchant 's smile was sly as he joined the little-game. "The brocades are much too heavy for such delicate ladies as yourselves in this season. The damask, even, would weigh - you must see the silks."

Leliana glanced around casually. "Silks, you say? I suppose it might not be too inappropriate, in this weather. It is so warm."

Kallian's lips were pressed together, looking disapproving, but her eyes sparkled. She and Leliana had toyed with many a Ferelden merchant, and it was all the more fun to go through the dance where Leliana had learned it, where every merchant could go through the steps in their sleep. It made it all the more clear how much blunter the version practiced by the merchants in Denerim had been, but that was no mark against it. Everything in Orlais wore a mask. It was rude, here, to make plain requests.

Leliana sighed theatrically. "I might want to get my poor Ferelden friend a proper gown. Perhaps the damask-"

"No, no!" the merchant interjected. "She would be buried in it. Crushed, like a butterfly." He lifted a length of green silk that fluttered with every breath of air. "Perhaps..."

Josephine shook her head firmly. "Not with her coloring, and in this season's styles? The pattern on that is much too small."

"Quite right," came a strong voice from the rear of the shop, and a tapestry was pushed aside to reveal a statuesque woman in an intricate porcelain mask. "Her gown must be soft, to accentuate the sharpness of her bone structure, as the petals of a rose display the sharpness of its thorns." She turned and curtseyed to Leliana. "And no friend of the Left Hand of the Divine is not a rose. I am honored by your attendance, Sister Leliana."

Leliana bowed in return. "I would not bring a friend to a lesser establishment than yours, Madame Girard."

Madame Girard's lips flickered in a smile. "Come, I will fit your friend for a proper gown, in," she turned and scanned the tables of fabric, then seized the bolt of rose silk that Kallian had been eyeing, "this pink, I think, no?"

Leliana grinned, her amusement extending to her eyes, and Kallian laughed. "Perfect!"

"If you will follow me this way, mademoiselle, I will get your measurements and have a piece started that will set you off as you deserve." Madame Girard glanced dismissively at Kallian's current attire, which Leliana had assembled in a hurry to get her out of traveling clothes. "Beautiful women deserve to be displayed to their best advantage, like every flower."

Kallian nodded and stepped through the tapestry Madame Girard held aside and into the back of the store, but she flashed a wry look at Leliana, who followed with Josephine.

After Kallian and been briskly and efficiently measured in a bright workshop, Madame Girard led the three of them into a softly lit showroom. The room was full of mannequins wearing examples of dresses currently in fashion. Madame Girard stalked among them like a hunting bird, then stopped suddenly before one and nodded sharply. "This style will flatter you best, I believe." She turned and inclined her head to Kallian. "Mademoiselle, Sister, Ambassador, do you agree?"

Leliana eyed the gown critically. The overskirt allowed for softening ruffles, and would also easily conceal nearly as many sheathed daggers as Kallian could possibly want to feel comfortable. The sleeves were full from the elbow down, but fitted above it, and wouldn't hinder movement. And the neckline was high, which Kallian had long ago confided that she preferred since the events of her wedding day. She nodded approvingly, and looked to Kallian, who was nodding as well.

"It's lovely. I can't imagine wearing it in Ferelden, but it should be perfect for Orlais."

Madame Girard nodded. "I will set my girls to the fabric, and have it sent to your lodgings as soon as it is completed."

Leliana smiled and took her hands, pressing them gratefully as she politely slipped her a purse of coin. "We are staying on the Rue de Lis, at l'Hôtel d'Or. Have it sent to the care of Josephine Montilyet."

Madame Girard curtseyed to them again. "I hope you enjoy your stay in Val Royeaux, mademoiselles."

Kallian led the way back out of the shop, at a pace almost too quick to be polite, and stretched languorously when she reached the street. When she finished, Leliana caught one of her arms in her own, and Josephine's arm with the other. "Now that business is taken care of, we can proceed to fun," she declared, eyes sparkling.

"And where are we going to do that, Sister Leliana," Kallian asked, pretending primness.

"We are going to the chocolatier's," Leliana said, "and we are going to eat bonbons until we want nothing more than a salad, and then we are going to a café and drinking coffee and eating baguettes and watercress until dark."

Josephine sighed. "I have missed days like this. It's been so busy, these past few years."

"And that is exactly why I brought you as well, my friend," Leliana said. "All three of us deserve this."

Kallian sighed and tipped her head back to stare at the sun. "I don't know if I deserve it, but I will try to be grateful for the extravagance." She poked Leliana in the side, her gaze turning sly. "After all, you do still owe me for dissuading that man in the Pearl who thought you were on the staff."

Leliana broke into a peal of laughter. "I had forgotten! But of course, I must repay you in plenty for that service."

The three walked down the street in the sunlight, laughing, towards the Rue d'Aliment.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Wintersend, and I hope you enjoyed! I loved all of your prompts, and I'm sorry I only had time to write for one of them.


End file.
